August, 1036

This book on the Crowth and Development of the Young Child should be of value to the health worker as a refresher on up-to-date material; it should serve as a source of information to parents; and it might well find itself as a guide in the conduct of staff conferences and other group discussions which have as their major theme the many phases of child growth and care. MARY J. DUNN

ABSTRACTS AND ANNOTATIONS

A GENERAL CONSIDERATION OF DEFECTIVE HEARING AND DEAFNESS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO ETIOLOGY: Hartsook, N. E. Southern Medical Journal

29:5. 521-27. May, 1936.

Some of the preventable causes of acquired deafness are catarrhal tubotympanitis, otitis media, the infectious diseases and sinusitis. The author believes that sinusitis may give rise to as large a percentage of aural disturbances as most, if not all, of the other causes combined. Aural damage may result from ocean bathing and inland swimming pools. Noise deafness is increasing, and results from industrial noise and heavy noise from street traffic. Ctosclerosis is responsible for a large percentage of deafness of middle life. Heredity and endocrine dysfunctions are the primary etiologic factors in otosclerosis, while neither rickets nor ostemalacia have been demonstrated to have a close etiologic relationship with otosclerosis. Animal experimentation (Barlow) has proven that apparently the function of hearing is not impaired in any way by a vitamin D deficiency. ..E.G. P.

HEALTH EDUCATION IN NURSING SCHOOLS: Warman, G. A. Trained Nurse and Hospital Review: 96:323-25 April, 1936.

The principal of the School of Nursing of Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City, discusses the aims and procedures of a Health Education Program in a nursing school. Creating desirable attitudes toward health, inculcating health habits, improving general health, encouraging correction of remedial defects, physical exercise, emotional and social adjustment guidance, provision of social activities, activities, and stimulating the acquisition of special knowledge, skill and insight which will enable the student to become an effective agent in the promotion of community health are the primary objectives of such a program. The health program should include health service, embracing complete physical examination before entering, or shortly thereafter. Schick, Dick, Mantoux tests, immunization and x-ray of the chest should be included. Consultation with various specialists should be available. A nurses' infirmary preferably on the top floor of the nurses' residence is a necessary part of the health service. Hours of duty in the clinical services, including classes, should not exceed 48 hours a week. ties for gymnasium exercises, sports and recreation, both indoors and outdoors should be provided. Students should be encouraged to follow the hobbies and interests they had before entering school, and to develop new ones. A full time social director to work out recreational activities is most desirable for a well rounded health program. E!G.P.

THE QUESTION OF POPULATION: erienne. Paris. June, 1936.

de Plauzoles, Sicard. Trophylaxis antiven8:293

At present the official attitude in France is to encourage increase in population regardless of the quality of that population. based on a fundamental error in thinking. Large numbers of inferior people are not an asset to a nation but a liability. Instead of offering inducements to parents for producing the largest numbers of children they should be offered to the families that produce the healthiest children. The trouble with France is not that she is underpopulated but that the rest of Europe is overpopulated. The population of Europe in 1800 was 188 million, in 1930 it was over 500 million. The nations in which the increase of population is greatest tend to seek an outlet in war, as do the hordes in the Crient. This overpopulation leads not on-ly to war but to poverty, misery and filth.

An enlightened statesmanship would try not merely to increase the number of human beings blindly but to create conditions under which they could live a really worth while human life. There has never been a time when the total production of the earth was sufficient to feed the population of the earth adequately. Novicow estimates that among 1000 individuals 10 live in luxury, 90 in comfort and 900 in poverty There is not therefore overproduction but under consumption. It has been ar gued that an increased population would give more consumers but human beings are not consumers unless they have the means with which to buy. The social hybienist should strive for adequate production and equitable distribution of the world s goods.

As to population every effort should be directed toward improving quality rather than numbers. In 1934 in France 47,000 children less than a year of age died. Unless children are born diseased all the dis.. eases of children under a year of age are preventable and children should not be allowed to be born diseased. If the infant mortality in France was as low as in Holland or Norway 20,000 children would be saved every year.

One of the best methods of saving children and producing children of high quality is a thoroughly organized fight against syphilis and gonorrhea. Congenital syphilis kills 111 out of 1000 children before they reach the age of 15 for every 100,000 births we lose more than 11,000 children from syphilis. Since the fight against syphilis has been started in France infant mortality has been reduced from 48.3 per 1000 in 1916 to 36.6 per thousand births in 1934.

To encourage healthy children rather than many children security should be provided for motherhood and poverty and want should be a bolished. For poverty breeds filth and disease. There is no use sperd ing billions for defense when the race is being allowed to deteriorate like a fire that is going out. Degeneration should be prevented by sexual education, the establishment of eugenic, prenuptial, preconcep tional and prenatal consultations, and real protection for the child by insuring him a healthy body and mind. If France is to be saved from de-cadence profound social, economic and moral changes must be brought about promptly.

AUDREY G MORGAN, V D DIVISION

INDUSTRIAL AND DOMESTIC:

Tyler, A. Jour. of the Roy

al Sanitary Institute (London) 56:10. April, 1936.

Smoke abatement presents a health reform long overdue and regarded with too much apathy. The smoke pall over our cities obscures much of the sunlight and in consequence robs us of the ultra-violet rays. Medical men have repeatedly drawn attention to repeatedly drawn attention to the serious effect of smoke laden atmospheres in connection with bronchitis, pneumonia, and other respiratory illnesses.

Cohen has shown that smoke from domestic chimneys by reason of its tarry nature and greater quantity is more offensive than the smoke from industrial chimneys. Existing smoke legislation, although not so easy to apply as we would like it to be, has not been applied sufficiently to prove whether or not it is effective. Public apathy is due to a lack of knowledge as to what smoke really is, how it is caused and how it can be prevented. Smoke is a complex substance containing soot, sulphur, mineral matter and steam.

tar,

Industrial plants having hand fired boilers are the most frequent industrial offenders. An adequate plant to overcome smoke should have a boiler of sufficient capacity to generate the amount of steam for the particular business carried on without having to force the fires. furnace should be constructed with the bridge at a proper height, grate not too long, fire-bars spaced evenly, door well-fitting, air-inlets and dampers in working order, failing forced draught, the chimney should be of sufficient height to create a good up draught; with forced draught, steam-jets and air ducts should be in a satisfactory condition.

A good quality of coal should be used; when ordering coal, manufacturers should ask for a guarantee as to the calorific value. The majority of smoke nuisances are due to bad stoking. Stokers lack knowledge as to methods of firing and regulation of the air supply. The stoker's duties may include all sorts of odd jobs about the factory. This obliges him to bank up the fires, a cause of smoke nuisances. A competent stoker must know what is meant by combustion, possess a fair knowledge of fuel values, and how and why the air should be regulated both above and below the grate. (Suggestions for stokers are given.)

Manufacturers should avail themselves of the services of the inspector to find out what causes the smoke nuisance in his plant; costly changes may be saved by cooperation between manufacturer and inspector.

Domestic smoke is largely due to the use of raw coal; it can best be prevented by education of the public for the use of smokeless fires. Although gas and electric systems are costly, there is a low-temperature carbonisation fuel, "Coalite", suitable for domestic use; it ignites easily, burns brightly, is fairly clean to handle, gives a good heat, and is smokeless. The drawback is that it is approximately 50% higher in price than coal.

The author proposes the formation of Regional Smoke Abatement Committees similar to those now operating in West Riding, Greater London,

Sheffield, and other areas. Local authorities should undertake to carry out propaganda on smoke abatement in schools and for adults. Consideration should be given to ways and means to bring the price of lowtemperature carbonisation fuel down to a level available to all classes. --E.G.P.

THIS

SO-CALLED REVOLT AGAINST REASON: Randall, J. H., Jr. The American Scholar. 5:3. 347-360. Summer, 1936.

Is it far fetched to correlate the distrust of intellectual procedure with the growing bigotry, intolerance and remarkable resurgence of faith in violence?.... ..From Moscow to the Mediterranean there reigns a pathetic faith in salvation through brutality.

It is the living institutions of society which bind men together, organize their activities, and furnish the self-evidence of the axioms their thinking elaborates. The social group supplies the organizing faith needed; it is the real embodiment of a super individual reason. Man lives and thinks by its grace. The social group and its group faith are set up over against the inadequate private reason of the individual.

Religious rationalism is grounded on divine revelation; communism is rooted in the revelation of Marx and Engels; our constitution worship depends upon the divine wisdom of the Fathers. Based on faith as they are, these axioms are inflexible: no modification is possible in the light of experience. Experience can only illustrate such axioms, it can never disprove them.

But it (science) takes as its starting point hypotheses, not selfevident axioms: hypotheses to be verified by the consequences to which they lead, not axioms necessarily rooted in faith. Its principles are tentative and provisional, to be reconstructed in the light of new discoveries of fact; it is a method for building a growing and expanding body of ideas. And it is from the start a social, not a private possession: its principles, procedures, techniques, tests, and validated conclusions are the property of no single nation, race, or class; they belong to mankind.

--R.R.S.

A

THREE YEARS' AFFILIATION OF A

COMMUNITY CHEST MENTAL HYGIENE CLINIC WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY IN A MEDICAL SCHOOL: Ackerly, Spafford. Southern Medical Journal, 29:5. 527-33.

Dr. Ackerly, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Louisville School of Medicine, and Medical Director of the Louisville Mental Hygiene Clinic, describes the merging in 1932 of the Louisville Psychological Clinic with the University. The director of the Mortal Hygiene Clinic, under the new organization, is also director of t psychopathic wards of the city hospital. The Louisville School of Medicine is now able to meet the requirements of the standards laid down by the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, due to this affiliation.

Assistant residents and interns in the city hospital have gained better experience in psychiatric work by having the responsibility for the psychopathic wards put squarely up to them, because no full-time resident has been available. Medical students were at first used as psychiatric social workers, thus developing more interest in their patients and learning something of the social side of medicine. Training courses for psychiatric social workers are now conducted, trainees being drawn from graduate social workers in Louisville. A training course for graduate nurses in psychiatry with a certificate at the end of four months regular nursing duty on the psychopathic wards is now in effect. Plans have been made to place public health nurses on the wards and in the Mental Hygiene Clinic for similar training.

Resident pediatricians from city hospital.give part-time service to the clinic, an advantage to both, since young pediatricians gain knowledge of the psychological problems of childhood. The Board of Directors of the clinic organized the director to accept private work, since the psychiatrist who is teaching must be active in diagnosing and treating the better class of psychiatric patient as well as the charity patient. Moreover people of means should have an opportunity to secure such services. Fees go to the University, and are turned back to the De... partment of Psychiatry for research, equipment, special drug therapy, library and so on.

The author concludes that medical schools should waste no time in planning adequately for their departments of psychiatry and mental hygiene. In so doing, they should cultivate the friendship and enlist the moral and financial support of the community welfare organizations that for years have led the way towed better human relationships and better social conditions in general. -E.G.P.

USE OF THE RADIO IN CANCER EDUCATION: O'Brien, W. A. Bull. Amer. Soc. for Control of Cancer. 18:5. 7-9. May, 1936.

In planning any radio talk on cancer, the following points should be considered: (1) The purpose of the talk should be clearly established, written down in as few words as possible, and the talk built around it. (Example: when the purpose is to combat the fear complex concerning lumps in the breast, the title of the talk will be "Breast Tamors", and the outline will stress the fact that the majority of breast lumps are neither tumors or cancers. Developing confidence in the public will bring more potential patients to treatment.

(2) A speaker should never address the radio audience as a group, but rather as one individual talking to another.

(3) The transitory quality of the radio audience should be kept in mind, but the speaker on cancer should never forget that his audience consists of cancer patients, their relatives, friends and potential cancer patients.

(4) Speakers on cancer subjects should not make unsupported statements and should remember the lack of information possessed by the Av